Wednesday, February 26, 2014

VII Nautical Awards of AENIB – Company with the most prominent professional trajectory: Comercial Morey

1.- Comercial Morey receives this year the award for the company with the most prominent profesional trajectory. What does this recognition mean to you?

We are overjoyed as it is a recognition of the Morey family´s lifelong dedication to the nautical business.

2.- What services does your company offer?

Our company sells boats, motors, nautical accessories and trailers, and at the same time offers various maintenance servicse for the boats that we sell: repairs, guardiannage, wintering, cleaning, painting etc. In other words we complement the boat sale with all the post sale maintenance services. We have been distributors of the SUZUKI outboards for over 30 years, which is one of our longest standing comercial dealerships.

3.- Your company is active since almost five decades. Could you talk about your professional trajectory? Both at a personal level (if you wish) and as a company.

The company was founded by my father Juan Morey Gil in the beginning of the seventies. The company was initially called "COANSA" (Comercial Autonáutica s.a) and was located in Palma along the road to Sóller. Already then the company dedicated itself mostly to motor boats, both inboard and outboard. After my brother Juan Mª Morey Estarellas joined the company, during what we could call the first "popularization" of yachting, the market developed immensely. Later on, in the middle of the eighties, the family tradition and my long time devotion to the sea and boats made it easy for me to join the company as well. From the start of the nineties the boat buyers increasingly started to demand post sale maintenance services, as well as dry storage during the winter, when they were not using their boats. That´s when the company made the biggest change so far and after nearly 30 years in the same location in Palma moved to new premises of 3.500 m2 in the industrial estate of Marratxi. This enabled us to respond to the demands of the "new yachting": more space to handle ever bigger boats, client parking and correct facilities to do the maintenance work that the boat owners were now demanding. Currently, our company hasn´t been able to avoid the consequences of the serious economic crisis that the sector is suffering from, but thanks to the professionalism and multi-tasking of all members of our staff, we are "weathering the storm" slowly, but surely.
4.- You have experienced first hand the historic change of the recreational yachting in our community. How has the sector changed? Was it easier to do nautical business before than it is now?

During these forty years the recreational yachting has gone through various changes in many aspects, the constant development of products related to navigation has led to a "boom" of sales of various articles for a certain time, only to be replaced by others. We went through a "boom" of the sailing yacht in the seventies because of the first oil crisis, a boom of llaüt, when the builders of these boats had an important production and even sold elsewhere in Spain. Also the thousands of windsurf boards sold in the eighties. The recreational fishing, always closely connected to the recreational yachting, has created a demand for a type of "fishing-cruiser", which has experienced the latest boom of sales, and is currently the type of boat that best combines the different facets of a boat.

Another important aspect in the development of the recreational yachting in Mallorca has been no other than the tourism; the arrival of visitors who wanted to enjoy the Majorcan coast line and didn´t want to content themselves with staying on the beach. As their purchasing power was higher than the average, their demand has pushed the sector on all levels. With the arrival of foreign sailing enthusiasts came also the foreign companies that joined the existing ones of family character, deeply rooted and firmly established: Darder, Socias y Rossello, Mus, Planisi etc. were families of Majorcan lineage connected to big nautical companies, but who for various reasons abandoned the nautical activity with time. With the passing of the years and under the common denominator of "nautical company" both new companies as well as new activities have joined in. Sectors like naval electronics, maintenance of super yachts, charter etc. have lead to a creation of new companies that have ended up defining the current yachting scene in Majorca: a great number of companies scattered all around the island, dedicating more or less professionally to a variety of businesses under the generic description of "yachting". 

5.- How have the new technologies and technical innovations changed your company and your way to work?

The arrival of the new technologies and technical innovations have not meant a radical change in the way we work, the nautical motors like any other type of motor have more electronic components and sometimes the repair of a motor requires a computer. Also the communication with the clients is smoother with the help of internet. But at the end of the day, when selling a boat, the client demands more face to face communication to go through the numerous details that may pop up in the course of a sale of a boat. In a way, a boat sale is comparable more to a house sale than to a car sale.

6.- Currently, what are the biggest problems your company faces on a daily basis? What do you think should or could be done to solve them?

Luckily some of the bureaucratic processes that have burdened the nautical industry (for example a new registration taking four months or a change of ownership taking five or six months) have improved a lot. Also the designation of the nautical qualifications, which have always been the most restrictive in Europe, are improving a lot as they are being adapted to the social realities of the yachting. On the other hand we continue to have a very high taxation, in some sectors we are the most taxed in Europe. The average cost of the services that the Majorcan yacht clubs offer, both when it comes to moorings or dock space, is a lot higher than on the mainland, to a degree caused by the increase of the license fees that the clubs have to pay the Administration. All of this leads to many owners deciding to take their yachts to the mainland for refit and maintenance work, which means an "escape" of business outside Majorca.

The increase of the yachting has meant a creation of new companies of boat sales, often of very slight structure and not able to successfully face the demand for post-sale service, which leaves the client dissatisfied. 

7.- How will your company face the coming years?

We are facing the future with hope. After some unprecedented hard years we are all hoping that the market will start to grow again based on the great enthusiasm for the yachting in Majorca and the most beautiful coasts in the Mediterranean.

8.- There are many family companies in the nautical sector in our islands. Why do you think this is so? Do you think the younger generations see in the nautical industry a way to carve themselves a future?

In the nautical environment there have always been lots of family companies, above all Majorcan ones. I suppose it is due the attraction with boats and all that surrounds the boats. If you have grown since childhood in a nautical environment, it is easy to develop a vocation for it and to dedicate yourself professionally to it.

For the new generations the nautical industry offers numerous possibilities, as during the recent years new professions that require specialized skills have appeared: sailing instructors, charter skippers, glass fibre specialists etc. But there is a lot of competition and difference between the supply and demand in the labour market. To carve a future in this sector, a proper training is important, as well as language skills, at least english and german.

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